Uprooting Al-Maliki: Mission Impossible: Are The Iraqis Stuck With Al-Maliki For The Foreseeable Future?
07 January 2013
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
When Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was asked
about the demonstrations staged against him in Baghdad
last year, he replied that it was Iraq that started
the Arab Spring. This is reminiscent of Bashar al-Assad's
statement to the Wall Street Journal, a few weeks
after the Syrian revolution erupted, in which he
claimed he was not concerned about the protests
because Syria represents the resistance front against
Israel.
The Arab Spring did not start in Iraq nor is Syria a
resistance front. Even if either of these two
statements were right, this is not what matters. What
matters is what the people there think.
Al-Maliki's only concern is staying in power, but he
is facing several challenges, one of which being that
he is his second and final term in office. He tried to
modify the constitution in order to engineer a third
term but failed, and now he might not even last until
the end of this term. This is why he is now trying to
look for other solutions, such as dissolving the
parliament before it votes against him, or holding
early elections.
Today, Sunday, could be the beginning of the first
battle. Al-Maliki, who failed to secure the majority
vote in the 2010 elections, came to power as part of a
coalition with the support of the Shiites and the
Sunni Kurds. Those alliances have, however, changed
and al-Maliki is now willing to ally with his enemies,
whether Shiite Sadrists or the Sunni Arabs. Yet the
latter are already engaged in demonstrations against
him, especially following the accusations levelled
against Finance Minister Rafea al-Eissawi, a prominent
Sunni figure. In fact, al-Maliki has alienated almost
every Sunni leader and is on the verge of a
confrontation with the Kurds in the north, apparently
due to Iran's desire to forge a route into Syria in
order to rescue al-Assad's besieged regime. Al-Maliki's
main concern is to monopolize power, and so he has
also marginalized Shiite leaders like Ibrahim al-Jaafari
and the wise politician Adel Abdul Mahdi. He is
getting ever closer to Iran and is willing to do
anything in order to stay in power.
It is important to note that Maliki's position is
unrivalled by any president or king, possibly anywhere
else in the world, for he has sole authority over all
key ministries and entities including security,
intelligence, the armed forces, finance, the central
bank, the media, the judiciary, and the policy of "de-baathification."
Currently, he is trying to seize control of the
anti-corruption bodies, and the list goes on.
When the deputy prime minister said in an interview
with CNN that al-Maliki was a dictator, he was
immediately dismissed. When al-Maliki fell out with
Vice President Tarek al-Hashimi, he accused him of
terrorism and conspiracy, and jailed his bodyguards.
It will be very hard to uproot Maliki from his
position whether by constitutional means, i.e. through
the parliament, or by demonstrations and civil
disobedience. Iraqis are at the beginning of another
rocky road that could return them back to square one;
back to when Saddam Hussein was in power and the
United States lost a trillion dollars and 4,000 of its
soldiers in order to get rid of him and his legacy.
Al-Maliki will be ousted, but only after he destroys
Iraq in a manner similar to al-Assad in Syria.
Al
Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya
television. He is also the former editor-in-chief of
Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in
the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is
a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He
has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs.
He is currently based in Dubai.
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EsinIslam.Com
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